Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda
Swami VivekanandaBengali: , Shāmi Bibekānondo; 12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta, was an Indian Hindu monk, a chief disciple of the 19th-century Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the introduction of the Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world and is credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the late 19th century. He was a major force in the revival of Hinduism in...
NationalityIndian
ProfessionClergyman
Date of Birth12 January 1863
CountryIndia
We know how often in our lives through laziness and cowardice we give up the battle and try to hypnotise our minds into the belief that we are brave.
We are for ever trying to make our weakness look like strength, our sentiment like love, our cowardice like courage, and so on.
We are all born cowards.
To cowards what advice shall I offer? - nothing whatsoever have I to say.
This world is not for cowards.
The coward is an object to be pitied.
The coward, afraid of the lash, with one hand wipes his eyes and gives with the other. Of what avail are such gifts?
Strength and manliness are virtue; weakness and cowardice are sin.
Our own selfishness makes us the most arrant cowards; our own selfishness is the great cause of fear and cowardice.
...Really, there is no greater sin than cowardice; cowards are never saved - that is sure. I can stand everything else but not that.
No cowardice, no sin, no crime, no weakness - the rest will come of itself. . .
Never allow weakness to overtake your mind. Remember Mahavira, remember the Divine Mother! And you will see that all weakness, all cowardice will vanish at once.
May the Lord ordain that your son becomes a man, and never a coward!
Many a time comes when we want to interpret our weakness and cowardice as forgiveness and renunciation.